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South Waziristan Special: The battleground
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), located along the border with Afghanistan, span an area of 27,220 sq km. The area has Afghanistan to the north-west, NWFP to the east and Balochistan to the south. The geographical arrangement of the seven tribal agencies, in order from north to south is: Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan. The geographical arrangement of the six Frontier Regions bordering the Tribal Areas, in order from north to south is: Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. Waziristan, a mountainous region in the northwest, spans 11,585 sq km and is divided into two agencies, North Waziristan and South Waziristan, with estimated populations of around 0.6 million and 0.8 million, respectively. South Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south. Waziristan is named after the Pashtun Wazir tribe and South Waziristan is the largest agency in FATA. Tank is the winter headquarters of the agency while Wana is its summer headquarters. It is bounded to the north by North Waziristan, to the north-east by districts Bannu and Lakki Marwat, to the east by tribal areas adjoining the Tank and DI Khan districts, to the south by Zhob district of Balochistan and tribal areas adjoining DI Khan district, and to the west by Afghanistan. The total area of the agency is 6,619 sq km. The terrain of the agency is mostly a mass of rugged and complex hills and ridges. There are no regular mountain alignments. The land rises gradually from south and east to north and west. The dominating range is the Preghal in the west along the border with Afghanistan. The highest peak, from which the range takes its name, is 3,515 metres high. Zarmelan, Wana, Shakki, Zalai, Spin and Tiarza are the main plains.
app
South Waziristan Special:Maulvi Nazir an ally of necessity?
Maulvi Nazir, a member of the Kakakhel tribe, is the chief of the Ahmadzai Wazirs who control much of South Waziristan. During the Soviet Afghan war, he was affiliated with the Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin and later joined the Taliban. Nazir enforced his brand of sharia in South Waziristan in 2006 with instructions to his supporters to avoid combating the Pakistan Army. Then, his forces, with the support of the military, engaged Uzbek militants. In early 2009 Nazir, Baitullah and Hafiz Gul Bahadur agreed to set aside differences to unify against NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan. They issued a declaration of allegiance to both Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden. After Baitullahs death, a group of fighters loyal to Baitullah attacked a group of Nazirs men on August 16, killing at least 17 militants. Currently, Wazir tribesmen have succeeded in persuading Nazir to remain neutral in fighting between the army and Hakeemullahs TTP.
South Waziristan Special: Relics of the past
In the years since the Soviet-Afghan war, militants trained to wage jihad became increasingly difficult to contain. The most influential of these figures included:
Neks father, Nawaz Khan, was a member of the tribal elite and owned property in the village of Kalosha, South Waziristan. Nek studied for five years at the Jamia Darul Uloom Waziristan. Afterwards, he was admitted to a college but did not complete his studies, choosing instead to start a shop in the main bazaar of Wana. When he was 18, Nek joined the mujahideen. During this period he met Osama Bin Laden at the Rash Khor training camp, south of Kabul. Later, he became friends-in-arms with Taliban minister Mullah Nazir, Tahir Yaldashev and Chinese separatist leader Hasan Mohsin. He headed an Al Qaeda training camp near Kabul and by the age of 27, was a Taliban commander in South Waziristan. After the Taliban regime fell in 2001, Nek returned to Wana, and from there facilitated the escape of many other Taliban and foreign fighters from Afghanistan. In April 2004, Nek accepted an offer of a cease-fire and amnesty with security forces. In June 2004, he was killed in an unmanned US drone attack.
South Waziristan Special: Todays threat
AKA Zulfiqar Mehsud, is the current chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Hakeemullah has been the TTP commander in the Khyber, Kurram and Orakzai tribal regions. Said to be in his late 20s and a cousin of Qari Hussain. He is known to be an aggressive commander, who previously served as a driver and was very close to Baitullah. Born in the Kotkai village of Sarwaki subdivision in South Waziristan Agency in 1980 as Jamshed Mehsud, Hakeemullah is known for his cruelty and for being a rash, strutting fighter who has led dozens of major terrorist operations against Pakistani and NATO security forces. Before becoming supreme commander of the TTP, his biggest success came on August 30, 2007, when his men captured 300 Pakistan Army soldiers in South Waziristan. The recent daring commando-style attacks on the militarys General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, and the Manawan and Bedian police training schools and FIA headquarters in Lahore, are said to bear his signature
South Waziristan Special:
Real name Noor Alam. Abdullah was a Pashtun, the same ethnic group as the Taliban and belonged to the Mehsud tribe. Abdullah studied at a government college in Peshawar before attending a seminary where he befriended Afghan Taliban and joined their movement. As a young man, Abdullah fought for the Taliban against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. He lost a leg in a landmine explosion a few days before the Taliban captured Kabul in September 1996. Abdullah remained imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay and became one of Pakistans most wanted Taliban leaders after his release. Abdullah said to have died in Zhob, Balochistan at the age of 33 spent 25 months in custody at the US prison in Cuba before his release in March 2004.
South Waziristan Special:
A clansman of Abdullah, Baitullah grew in strength and stature after 9/11 and was said to command as many as 20,000 pro-Taliban militants. Baitullah had a $5 million US bounty on his head, and was killed in a CIA drone attack on his in-laws house in the Zangar area on August 5, 2009. His fighters were accused of playing a major role in advances Taliban made in Pakistan in recent years, especially in providing a sanctuary for fighters to operate in Afghanistan. After a failed peace accord in February 2005, Baitullah Mehsuds militants waged a guerrilla war that nearly pushed the army out of South Waziristan. Afterwards he virtually ruled the area as his personal fiefdom. The government has also accused him of ordering former PM Benazir Bhuttos assassination in December 2007. Mehsud denied he had anything to do with the attack. Mehsud himself was reported to be part of a wider Waziristan-based alliance with groups led by Maulvi Nazeer in Wana and Hafiz Gul Bahadur in Miranshah. Intelligence reports claim that Mehsuds force has a large number of foreigners.
South Waziristan Special:
Leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), was killed on August 27, 2009 in South Waziristan, where he had been based for some years. Yaldashev first emerged in the late 1980s as the founder of the Adolat, or Justice, movement, a gang of young Muslim vigilantes meting out mediaeval punishments in Ferghana Valley, a breathtakingly beautiful region in Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, when the Soviet Union was on its last legs. Fighting on the Talibans side in Afghanistans civil war, the IMU boasted several thousand fighters. But its base near the town of Mazar-e-Sharif was bombed by US warplanes in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Yaldashevs next bolthole was Waziristan, where he and his gang won over many conservative Pashtun tribesmen. Many Uzbeks settled down in Waziristan, learning the Pashto language, marrying and having children there. Yaldashev shot to prominence in March 2004, when Pakistani forces surrounded his base in South Waziristan, but he escaped while his fighters mounted a fierce defence
South Waziristan Special:
Leader of the Mehsud Taliban, Rehman is now the strongest commander of TTP and controls between 7,000 and 10,000 armed fighters in South Waziristan. A Malkhel Mehsud, Rehman is approximately 40 years old, a resident of Momi Karama area, and belongs to a middle class family. Rehman has been described as very humble and exceptionally intelligent. A graduate of the Jamia Islamia Imdadia madrassa in Faisalabad, Rehman returned to South Waziristan after finishing his education and began to teach in a local madrassa in Kanigurum. Before joining the Taliban, he was active with the JUI-F and, reportedly, still has contacts with the partys top leadership. Rehman joined Baitullah Mehsuds Taliban movement in 2004. During his time with the TTP, he became very close to Baitullah Mehsud and was appointed Baitullahs deputy in 2006. He remained in this position until 2007, when he was assigned the task of looking after the financial matters of the TTP
South Waziristan Special:
Hussain runs a training nursery for suicide bombers in Spinkai, South Waziristan and has been active in violent acts against the Pakistani government. Hussain belongs to the Mehsud tribe and is also a member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group based in Punjab that forged ties with Al Qaeda well before 9/11. He is described as a leading ideologue for the Taliban and his extremist views are said to be popular among Arabs, Uzbeks, and Afghan fighters. Hussain was reported dead after his mud house in Kotkai was destroyed in a military operation in January 2008, but in May 2008 he appeared in front of the media to deny the reports and boasted that he was born to live and serve the Taliban. He was later reported killed in a June 23, 2009 airstrike at Makeen in South Waziristan, but then phoned reporters to prove he was alive. The government has announced a Rs 10 million bounty for his killing or capture.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), located along the border with Afghanistan, span an area of 27,220 sq km. The area has Afghanistan to the north-west, NWFP to the east and Balochistan to the south. The geographical arrangement of the seven tribal agencies, in order from north to south is: Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan. The geographical arrangement of the six Frontier Regions bordering the Tribal Areas, in order from north to south is: Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. Waziristan, a mountainous region in the northwest, spans 11,585 sq km and is divided into two agencies, North Waziristan and South Waziristan, with estimated populations of around 0.6 million and 0.8 million, respectively. South Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south. Waziristan is named after the Pashtun Wazir tribe and South Waziristan is the largest agency in FATA. Tank is the winter headquarters of the agency while Wana is its summer headquarters. It is bounded to the north by North Waziristan, to the north-east by districts Bannu and Lakki Marwat, to the east by tribal areas adjoining the Tank and DI Khan districts, to the south by Zhob district of Balochistan and tribal areas adjoining DI Khan district, and to the west by Afghanistan. The total area of the agency is 6,619 sq km. The terrain of the agency is mostly a mass of rugged and complex hills and ridges. There are no regular mountain alignments. The land rises gradually from south and east to north and west. The dominating range is the Preghal in the west along the border with Afghanistan. The highest peak, from which the range takes its name, is 3,515 metres high. Zarmelan, Wana, Shakki, Zalai, Spin and Tiarza are the main plains.
app
South Waziristan Special:Maulvi Nazir an ally of necessity?
Maulvi Nazir, a member of the Kakakhel tribe, is the chief of the Ahmadzai Wazirs who control much of South Waziristan. During the Soviet Afghan war, he was affiliated with the Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin and later joined the Taliban. Nazir enforced his brand of sharia in South Waziristan in 2006 with instructions to his supporters to avoid combating the Pakistan Army. Then, his forces, with the support of the military, engaged Uzbek militants. In early 2009 Nazir, Baitullah and Hafiz Gul Bahadur agreed to set aside differences to unify against NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan. They issued a declaration of allegiance to both Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden. After Baitullahs death, a group of fighters loyal to Baitullah attacked a group of Nazirs men on August 16, killing at least 17 militants. Currently, Wazir tribesmen have succeeded in persuading Nazir to remain neutral in fighting between the army and Hakeemullahs TTP.
South Waziristan Special: Relics of the past
In the years since the Soviet-Afghan war, militants trained to wage jihad became increasingly difficult to contain. The most influential of these figures included:
Neks father, Nawaz Khan, was a member of the tribal elite and owned property in the village of Kalosha, South Waziristan. Nek studied for five years at the Jamia Darul Uloom Waziristan. Afterwards, he was admitted to a college but did not complete his studies, choosing instead to start a shop in the main bazaar of Wana. When he was 18, Nek joined the mujahideen. During this period he met Osama Bin Laden at the Rash Khor training camp, south of Kabul. Later, he became friends-in-arms with Taliban minister Mullah Nazir, Tahir Yaldashev and Chinese separatist leader Hasan Mohsin. He headed an Al Qaeda training camp near Kabul and by the age of 27, was a Taliban commander in South Waziristan. After the Taliban regime fell in 2001, Nek returned to Wana, and from there facilitated the escape of many other Taliban and foreign fighters from Afghanistan. In April 2004, Nek accepted an offer of a cease-fire and amnesty with security forces. In June 2004, he was killed in an unmanned US drone attack.
South Waziristan Special: Todays threat
AKA Zulfiqar Mehsud, is the current chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Hakeemullah has been the TTP commander in the Khyber, Kurram and Orakzai tribal regions. Said to be in his late 20s and a cousin of Qari Hussain. He is known to be an aggressive commander, who previously served as a driver and was very close to Baitullah. Born in the Kotkai village of Sarwaki subdivision in South Waziristan Agency in 1980 as Jamshed Mehsud, Hakeemullah is known for his cruelty and for being a rash, strutting fighter who has led dozens of major terrorist operations against Pakistani and NATO security forces. Before becoming supreme commander of the TTP, his biggest success came on August 30, 2007, when his men captured 300 Pakistan Army soldiers in South Waziristan. The recent daring commando-style attacks on the militarys General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, and the Manawan and Bedian police training schools and FIA headquarters in Lahore, are said to bear his signature
South Waziristan Special:
Real name Noor Alam. Abdullah was a Pashtun, the same ethnic group as the Taliban and belonged to the Mehsud tribe. Abdullah studied at a government college in Peshawar before attending a seminary where he befriended Afghan Taliban and joined their movement. As a young man, Abdullah fought for the Taliban against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. He lost a leg in a landmine explosion a few days before the Taliban captured Kabul in September 1996. Abdullah remained imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay and became one of Pakistans most wanted Taliban leaders after his release. Abdullah said to have died in Zhob, Balochistan at the age of 33 spent 25 months in custody at the US prison in Cuba before his release in March 2004.
South Waziristan Special:
A clansman of Abdullah, Baitullah grew in strength and stature after 9/11 and was said to command as many as 20,000 pro-Taliban militants. Baitullah had a $5 million US bounty on his head, and was killed in a CIA drone attack on his in-laws house in the Zangar area on August 5, 2009. His fighters were accused of playing a major role in advances Taliban made in Pakistan in recent years, especially in providing a sanctuary for fighters to operate in Afghanistan. After a failed peace accord in February 2005, Baitullah Mehsuds militants waged a guerrilla war that nearly pushed the army out of South Waziristan. Afterwards he virtually ruled the area as his personal fiefdom. The government has also accused him of ordering former PM Benazir Bhuttos assassination in December 2007. Mehsud denied he had anything to do with the attack. Mehsud himself was reported to be part of a wider Waziristan-based alliance with groups led by Maulvi Nazeer in Wana and Hafiz Gul Bahadur in Miranshah. Intelligence reports claim that Mehsuds force has a large number of foreigners.
South Waziristan Special:
Leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), was killed on August 27, 2009 in South Waziristan, where he had been based for some years. Yaldashev first emerged in the late 1980s as the founder of the Adolat, or Justice, movement, a gang of young Muslim vigilantes meting out mediaeval punishments in Ferghana Valley, a breathtakingly beautiful region in Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, when the Soviet Union was on its last legs. Fighting on the Talibans side in Afghanistans civil war, the IMU boasted several thousand fighters. But its base near the town of Mazar-e-Sharif was bombed by US warplanes in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Yaldashevs next bolthole was Waziristan, where he and his gang won over many conservative Pashtun tribesmen. Many Uzbeks settled down in Waziristan, learning the Pashto language, marrying and having children there. Yaldashev shot to prominence in March 2004, when Pakistani forces surrounded his base in South Waziristan, but he escaped while his fighters mounted a fierce defence
South Waziristan Special:
Leader of the Mehsud Taliban, Rehman is now the strongest commander of TTP and controls between 7,000 and 10,000 armed fighters in South Waziristan. A Malkhel Mehsud, Rehman is approximately 40 years old, a resident of Momi Karama area, and belongs to a middle class family. Rehman has been described as very humble and exceptionally intelligent. A graduate of the Jamia Islamia Imdadia madrassa in Faisalabad, Rehman returned to South Waziristan after finishing his education and began to teach in a local madrassa in Kanigurum. Before joining the Taliban, he was active with the JUI-F and, reportedly, still has contacts with the partys top leadership. Rehman joined Baitullah Mehsuds Taliban movement in 2004. During his time with the TTP, he became very close to Baitullah Mehsud and was appointed Baitullahs deputy in 2006. He remained in this position until 2007, when he was assigned the task of looking after the financial matters of the TTP
South Waziristan Special:
Hussain runs a training nursery for suicide bombers in Spinkai, South Waziristan and has been active in violent acts against the Pakistani government. Hussain belongs to the Mehsud tribe and is also a member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group based in Punjab that forged ties with Al Qaeda well before 9/11. He is described as a leading ideologue for the Taliban and his extremist views are said to be popular among Arabs, Uzbeks, and Afghan fighters. Hussain was reported dead after his mud house in Kotkai was destroyed in a military operation in January 2008, but in May 2008 he appeared in front of the media to deny the reports and boasted that he was born to live and serve the Taliban. He was later reported killed in a June 23, 2009 airstrike at Makeen in South Waziristan, but then phoned reporters to prove he was alive. The government has announced a Rs 10 million bounty for his killing or capture.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
